If you run 3.8.4 please read

[foamman]

Hi everyone,
I was hoping to get the help of the forum. I am having issues running the latest update of the control software (3.8.4) and with the help of Frank (of Shopbot technical support fame) I have been trying to figure out why. Our suspicion is that my processor is too slow which has been causing me to miss steps.

I would like to see what other processors are being used to run the new upgrade and get an idea where mine falls in terms of performance. I found a web site that ranks processors on a scale. It is called:

cpubenchmark.net

If you are running 3.8.4, can you please let me know what processor you are using so I can compare it to mine? If you want to visit the site yourself and just let me know your score that would work too. The easiest way I found to do it is just to put your processor info into Google and put "benchmark" at the end. The click on the link for CPUbenchmark.

For the record, my processor is a Pentium(R) Duel Core T4400 @ 2.2 GHz. My benchmark score is 1304.

Please help if you can. This may also be of help the others trying to run 3.8.4.

Thanks
Ben

[srwtlc]

AMD Phenom II X4 945 @3.0 Ghz - 3,730 Packet_ET 15.1

What is your Packet_ET after a move command of say MX,20? UD, at the bottom right of the resulting screen.

[adrianm]

INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6400 @ 2.13ghz - score of 1,171 - Packet_ET 16.5

3.8 works perfectly for me.

[foamman]

Hi Scott,
Thanks for your reply and help. My packet ET is around 35. Frank and I are still trying to figure out why it is so high.

[GlenP]

I gave up on the new version. I am running 3.6.38. I have almost same processor as Scott as he helped guide me thru building my own pc (thanks again Scott) and had high packet numbers etc. I may revisit it later but IMHO if you have one that works and it ain't broke....leave it alone.
I think we all want and wish we could run the new version as it perhaps is our nature to stay "updated" but unless the wheel gets reinvented with it I am not going to worry about updating. Good luck though and keep us updated.

Cheers,

[jerry_stanek]

I have a Pentium 4 2.79 Ghz with 2.24 gigs of ram and I get ET 24.6 from this system no problems running 3.8 software.

[jerry_stanek]

I am wondering if some of the newer pc's that are multi core could be the problem where the processor is using one core then switches to a different one due to inactivity.

[bleeth]

Don't know but don't you think it is about time that SB offered a PC built from scratch optimized to run their controller? Bottom line to me seems to be that a bare bones box with networking ability and the right hardware with no extraneous software would not only be welcome by many users but also cut way down on customer service calls.
Why networking ability? So you can design and output code on your full bore desk (or laptop) computer and network to it (though a firewalled router if you are smart) to select files to run and also connect to SB for update software downloads.
Also, like many other software companies, SB should at this point be asking people if they mind if they take control of their computer to check things out. That could also save a lot of time and grief on customer service calls.

[garyr6]

There's more than a few good points point in that post.

How about it...... can we put that stuff on the xmas list, oh shopbot powers?

[Michaelodunk]

This is a personal opinion.

Newer computer are processing billions of instructions a second I don't see any way the SB is using the data that fast.

How about the SB is getting more data then it can handle and a buffer is
overflowing causing missed instructions

Mike

[bill_l]

I have 3.8.4 running on my HP ZD7000A laptop. I has a Pentium R(4) @ 3.06 GHz and 2 gb of ram. I do have an external usb hub and my control card is v201.

This laptop is over 10 years old. Last week I ran a 3D carving that had just short of one million lines of code. It was a challenge for the "old guy" but between roughing and finishing passes the total run time was about nine hours.

There were two issues that came up. The first was in the roughing cut when after about 50,000 lines and reversing direction on a raster cut the machine failed to come out of it's ramp. After several passes I paused the machine and issued a minor feed speed change and after resuming the file finished without further incident.

The second "hiccup" was after about two hours into the finishing pass the exact opposite happened. The machine failed to ramp when approaching reversal of a raster pass. That one gets your attention when she's moving at 4 ips. Again I paused the machine and issued a minor feed speed change and the file finished with flawless results.

Both discoveries were reported and the roughing toolpath was sent to support.

As a side note, I've had no problems driving the Bot with my iPhone and 3.8.4.

Bill

[rayman]

I gave up on it also..I am running AMD phenom 9750 Quad Core 2.4 GHz:mad:

[rayman]

I think with the AMD processor you will need to run at least 3GHz..my benchmark was 2907 and I can't run the software..Just about everyone I see that is running AMD are running 2.7 and 3 GHz and having no problem with 3.8.4....just sayin....:rolleyes: maybe wrong on that but whatever....

[jbuell]

Great idea Dave! Anyone know if it is possible to run a Shopbot on a Raspberry Pi?
Inexpensive, easy to troubleshot and can be modified to browse a network to run files. Not sure about the ram and processor though.

[ssflyer]

The Pi runs an ARM Linux distro, and won'r run WINE, so no, I don't see that happenning...

[jerry_stanek]

at this time I am running a file from my HP netbook with 1 gig ram and an Atom processor. I have loaded 3.8.5 on it just to see what would happen. I did run that file on my normal computer running 3.8.4 and it ran very smooth. It is a long file about 4 hours to run so we will see what happens.

[jerry_stanek]

File ran perfect other than the stops to reload data. I was even plugging in a usb fan and unplugging it did that about 20 times as I was working on the cooler unit for my wife.

[gerryv]

Hi Jerry,
3.8.5? I'm still only seeing 3.8.4 on the Shopbot site. Perhaps you're a beta tester?

[dan78]

Hi Guys ,
I have done the upgrade , and without any "control" /or / proper understanding of the situation I have most of the problems what where here, or on another threads experienced, so I have dedicated most of the day for same troubleshooting, here are my results.

I have replaced my initial laptop Acer 2GB Mem and CPU Intel 1.5 GHz.

So my tests are done now with a

Toshiba CPU Intel 2.20 GHz and 8 GB Mem

After the "laptop" upgrade I can see no change same crashes ...


Things done , summary to what actually really make a difference.

1 Make sure you have a "Packet_ET" under 20 !!!

A. DO NOT USE USB 3!!!! will not work ...
B . In a laptop MAKE sure you DISABLE the battery control of the USB!!!!!and force the laptop to use the "High performance" for the battery.
C. make sure you have installed correct the firmware "UI" option ...to narrow , where I am now , I have to re-do it.

This will bust the USB to have "Packet_ET" under 20 , my case around 15 , and all the problems with the variations on speed will clear !!!!

2 After this I have the "random" same crashes where the speed seems to slow .
I have noticed ....my Wireless card !!! at that time was doing a "search" after networks .....her decision!!!! so I have disabled the wireless card , and that seems to cure for now !!!

I will keep posting my experience, please post yours, we may find the final solution for all this problems.

Thanks for all you help ;o)

Cheers DAN

www.cnc4unz.com

[GlenP]

Hi All. I tried again to run the 3.8 software without my hub and no go. Made same noises. In a private message Brady was telling me about motors, values etc and something came up that I am wondering if others that are having issues with the 3.8 have in common with me. I have a 2007 PRS standard and my motors are the ones that have a label that says 0.5" / step. Brady was telling me about this mark on the label and that it may have another marking that says 1.5 amp. Mine does not say that. But I am wondering if the motor amps is problem? Shopbot uses a 2 amp motor now. My number on my motor is A7243-9412KTG.
I am not sure if by any chance the 1.5 or 2 amps would make difference with software. When I checked my packet to see comms I am at 13.8

[Brady Watson]

My BT48 Standard could cut up to 10IPS and Jog up to 16-17IPS (24" circle test) running off a cheesy 1.4Ghz Compaq laptop. It had the 1.5A motors. Yes, the 2A motors do offer more torque in certain areas of the power band, but that's a moot point in keeping with the thread topic.

I want to know com rate percentage and power supply voltage, as these two influence the top end of the tool more than anything else. If you have to go back to 3.6.46 to run SpeedTest.exe, then do it so we can compare apples to apples.

-B

[tlempicke]

One of the really daunting things about Microsoft is that it is written to work in hundreds of different kinds of computers, processors and configurations.

Apple on the other hand has total control over the machine that will be running it's program. When you buy a MAC you know that the program and machine will work together without any fuss from you. When Apple releases a new machine they tell you just exactly how far back it will be compatible, and you can believe it.

Dave was asking for a dedicated machine earlier. Well here is the next best thing. thik of how many thousands of hours this community and Shopbot could save if they only had one platform to work with.

[gerryv]

Right on Tom.

[adrianm]

Can't imagine you could buy a Mac for anything like what I paid for the PC I use with my ShopBot that works 100% perfectly though. It cost me £75.

I could be completely wrong but I think we get a very false impression of the issues from looking at the forums.

Human nature is that people only tend to say something when things aren't going right so straight away you seen a disproportionate number of people having problems and how many active ShopBot users are actually on the forums anyway?

It was a different industry but a company that I used to work for that had it's own community forum saw less than 2% of the user base actually participate on the forums.

Having said that I really do think that ShopBot should offer a completely closed system that the end user can't modify or change in any way. Personally I'd base that on something like the Ouya running Android rather than a Mac or PC though.

[coryatjohn]

I would be willing to bet that if people who had problems with their PC's did a clean install of a fresh copy of Windows without all the crapware, a lot of their problems would go away. A modern computer purchased at a place like Best Buy is loaded with extra stuff that only slows the computer down. Some of it is impossible to get rid of completely. Anti-virus programs are a good example. They run constantly and do things that are very much like a virus. Try getting rid of Norton. It's quite difficult.

It took me several hours of hunting to purge my new purchase Dell computer of crapware. It runs smoothly now and even though it's a bargin basement cheapo, runs the ShopBot 48" circle test at 10 ips easily.

I'm still running 3.6 and won't be upgrading for a while. I like the "Don't fix it if it ain't broke" philosophy.

[ron_moorehead]

Last year my wife bought a new computerized quilt machine which we paid $30,000 for. It came with a computer preloaded with all the software and a UPS for the computer. The communication from the computer to the motor controllers is by a Ethernet cable. the software has more functions than the ShopBot control software as it shows in real time on the computer monitor the design and location of the quilt machine. She has used it as much as I have used my ShopBot, but she has not had one problem with the computer talking to the controller for the motors. The price for the quilt machine with out the computerized function is $20,000. In talking with people I know ShopBot belief is you should be able to plug your ShopBot into your computer and go with it. I know if they were to start supplying computers with each ShopBot they would have to start providing tech support for computers, but I would think at this point they are doing a lot of this right now trying to get people up and running. I have not given up hope on 3.8.4 upgrade yet, but yesterday as I was getting ready and doing my spindle warm up she quit on me twice and I had to reboot the computer to get back up and running. Once I got pass the warm up routine she ran fine for the rest of the day or about 2 hours of cutting time. By the way did not have the dust collect on during warm up. She was just sitting there running the spindle. One thing I did yesterday afternoon that I have been meaning to do on my new computer for her, is to set it up in the Bare-bone configuration as outlined on Black Viper web site for XP. My computer has a clean load of XP with service pack 3, no garbage as I custom built my PC, ASUS ITX mother board, 4 gig ram, Intel dual core processor, and 250 gig solid state hard drive. I will let you know how it goes. By the way my ShopBot is only about a month old and it's a PRS Alpha.

[Bob Eustace]

Ron we are living in a parallel universe here in Australia! Chrissy has an APQS long arm with the Intelliquilt servo system. We went with APQS because of a forum that is identical to ours here with Shopbot. Zero flaming and total love of the product. The APQS designers and tech came out here as they had a dreadfull local install lass and it was really damaging their brand - similar to what is presently happening with Shopbot on this seemingly unfixable comms problem. Anyway these guys spent the day with us, we have become life long friends and the machine hasnt missed a beat in two years unlike the two years we have had with the Bot. I know I would be prepared to spend money with Shopbot were they to bring out a proprietry computer GUARANTEEING no comes drop outs! Shopbot really do need to address this problem pronto as being an open forum all and sundry can read about the problems and pretty soon comms problems will go hand in glove with Shopbot! This is a crying shame as Ted and his team have put a lot of effort into trying to make a value for money product. To me it is utterly daft for tech support to recommend earthing everything. Earth looms should be part of the original machine and should now be supplied FOC to those with problems. I never bad mouth Shopbot but I am very dissappointed in 3.8 as I had hoped this would cure this problem. Like you, ours stops in daft places - like the end of a cut! Eliminating the speed test in my view was crazy!

[bleeth]

New update posted to SB. Hopefully it helps some of you having issues:

http://www.shopbotblog.com/index.php/2013/04/control-software-sb3-8-6-maintenance-update-42713/

[Simops]

Me personally I'm still sticking with 3.6.44. It has not let me down ever.

Like buying cars (and helicopters:p) never get the first series. I'm waiting a year or so before I look at it...by then the feedback from everyone's problems will have evolved 3.8.x to what it should be.

Cheers

[bleeth]

I'm with you Michael. I'm running a 3.6 something on my tool and didn't even think of upgrading it until lot's of things had been worked out in the earlier releases. I posted the latest release news for those who just can't wait!

[coryatjohn]

I see 3.8.4 is being included in the recent upgrade from Partworks to VCarve Shopbot.